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Standing in the jungle in Borneo, wilting on a humid 40C afternoon, even just breathing can drench you completely. So my husband, three-year-old son and I tried to move as little as possible on the viewing platform, chins perched on the wooden railing that separated us from the deep verdant jungle — giant trees stretching to the sky, dense low-level vegetation dripping with moisture, and thick vines zigzagging among the branches.

Then, high up in the canopy, the leaves started to move. Every one of us in the small crowd on the boardwalk looked up, eager for a first sighting. My toddler, meanwhile, had already had enough. “I’m hot. Can we go now?”

“No, we can’t leave just yet, little man. The orangutans are coming.”

I pointed up to the trees just as a young female swung into sight with a baby clinging to her chest. My son followed the trajectory of my outstretched finger and smiled with surprise. The heat was forgotten. His complaints of being tired and hungry faded away before they could even be voiced. He was hooked.

The Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre is nestled in the Kabili-Sepilok Forest Reserve, a stretch of virgin forest in Malaysian Borneo that has been protected by the government since 1964. Rangers at the centre care for orangutans that are orphaned, abused or abandoned and gradually reintroduce them to the wild in an effort to increase their now dwindling population. And so, anywhere from 200 to 800 tourists a day pay the roughly $10 per adult ($5 per child) to visit the centre to get as close a view as possible of these shy and gentle primates.

On the afternoon we visited, our son was entranced by the human-like movements of these creatures that we had told him about for months and that he had only ever seen occasionally in zoos. He was the only child in the small crowd so we were given prime viewing access, the adult tourists smiling at him as they opened up a path for us at the front of the platform, some even tousling his strawberry-blond hair as we passed. It was the kind of attention he would grow used to during our stay in Borneo, which doesn’t seem to see as many young tourists as other vacation spots.

Once the orangutans arrived, it was silence from everyone including, surprisingly, the little man. For this was what we all had come here to see: wild orangutans playing in the trees, giving us a glimpse of how beautiful and graceful they are before disappearing into the seemingly impenetrable vegetation so quickly, you wonder for a moment if it even happened at all.

But jungles and orangutans weren’t the only reasons we came to Borneo and after a few days of mainland heat and humidity, we were ready for a trip to the ocean. From the marina in Sandakan, we caught our 90-minute speedboat to Selingan Island, one of a handful of annual birthing areas for giant sea turtles. Only a small number of tourists are allowed on Selingan every night and we were keen to reach the 7.2-hectare island in the Sulu Sea near the Philippine border.

Every night, anywhere from five to 50, 450-pound turtles scramble out of the water and flap their way through the sand to deposit their eggs on the island where they were born. Even though the females may spend their first 30 to 40 years roaming the earth’s oceans before they return, tiny crystals in their skulls tune them into the magnetic field of the island and, year after year, beckon them back to the place of their birth.

Our little guy sat patiently with us and the 30 or so other visitors as we waited for the ranger’s call, which came at 9:30 p.m. Then he was right beside us as we took off, jogging as much as we could in our flip-flops through the sand toward a point where rangers had spotted the first enormous turtle come to lay her eggs that evening.

The excitement of the sprint across the dark beach was the highlight for him; the thrill of running headlong into the warm night under the watchful eye of a graciously bright moon and twinkling stars made him giddy.

By the time we reached the “Mamma turtle,” he couldn’t stop talking and asking questions. We were offered spots at the front of the group as the turtle lay her 120 small, white eggs in a deep hole in the sand, and again when the rangers collected and buried the eggs in a special fenced-in incubation area, protected from predators, until ready to hatch.

The last treat of the night was to watch the rangers release a bucketful of newly hatched baby turtles into the ocean. Our son had a special “future biologist” view right beside the ranger and even got the star treatment that all the adults were dying to have when the ranger held an infant turtle up over the little man’s outstretched hand and let its tiny flippers tickle his palm.

We thought because of its remoteness Borneo might be the one destination during our month-long trip that would prove problematic travelling with a toddler. The opposite was true. Sometimes little adventurers can open your trip to more opportunities and bring you closer to your dreams than you ever thought possible.

Getting there

Air Canada and Cathay Pacific each fly to Hong Kong via Vancouver starting at $1,350. Fly Cathay Pacific from Hong Kong to Kota Kinabalu for $480, return. From there, catch one of Malaysian Airlines’ six daily flights to Sandakan on the island’s east coast for about $30, return.

Staying there

The Hyatt Regency Kota Kinabalu has luxurious and spacious rooms with free Wi-Fi starting at $100. The hotel’s family-friendly main floor restaurant, the Tanjung Ria Cafe, has enormously varied buffet meals so that even the pickiest eaters in your bunch are guaranteed to find something they like.

Surrounded by jungle and just a five-minute walk from the Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre, the Sepilok Jungle Resort will wow little ones with wildlife at every turn. Rooms are spartan, but the resort’s lush grounds, tree-nestled restaurant, and large pool area will entice the whole family outside early and keep everyone out even after dark. Rates start at $60.

Going mobile

Borneo is accustomed to technology-savvy, gap-year travellers, so hotel and in-room Wi-Fi is not uncommon, even in Sepilok. A tablet comes in handy when you’re forced to stay in your jungle hotel room because of a sudden and prolonged afternoon rainstorm, making games like Angry Birds Rio or your toddler’s favourite Toca Robot Lab a welcome distraction on the extra big screen. Having the Flight Track app on your smartphone is a lifesaver, especially to find out if your flight out of Borneo is departing on time.

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